Part 3 – Jason

Tal'i placed her head at her knees, her hands near her feet and threw her body weight over in a tumble. She rolled right over until she had her feet back under her, pushing up into a standing position with her hands held out before her.

"I did it!" she said with a smile. Dick from the past clapped and congratulated her.

Ibn frowned. He knew his daughter could do better than that. She was just seeing what would get praise out of the guests.

He told her as much.

"Dick, whatever you could do at her age, she can at least attempt," he said to the former acrobat.

Tal'i looked over at Ry'an. Ry'an was strapped into harness where he could bounce up, down and all around to his heart's content. She cartwheeled over to him and grabbed at the harness.

"My turn."

Ry'an tried to bounce and found he couldn't. His face screwed up.

"Uh oh," Jason from the past grumbled, covering his ears. Dick winced and Tim braced himself.

The door was kicked open with a bang.

"Boom, bang, baby! I'm back!" the Jason of Ibn's time stood in the doorway, the grey lock in his hair pulled back and wearing a suit. In his arms were colourful bags.

The noise startled Ry'an and the tears and wails came.

"Uncle Jay!" Tal'i screamed happily, dashing over to give her uncle a hug.

Ibn bounced Ry'an to try and calm the baby down.

"Hey, Kiddo! Who's your favourite uncle?"

"You!" Tal'i responded holding her arms out to be lifted.

"Ding, ding, ding! Correct answer! And Uncle Jay brought presents!"

"You didn't," Ibn sighed.

Jason shot him a toothy grin. It was obvious he came just to get on Ibn's nerves.

"I did."

"Aren't you supposed to be training with Carrie?"

Carrie had been waiting for her cue. At Ibn's inquiry, she popped her head around the corner.

"Yo!" she greeted with a wave.

"Who is that?" Dick asked. He didn't recognise the green eyed, red haired woman.

"Well, would you believe it, she's his old acting teacher," Ibn's brother said with a thumb jab at Ibn. "This grump took the lessons behind papa bat's back."

"Hey, I liked teaching him!" Carrie responded, adjusting her black-framed glasses. "Damian's a cool kid."

"Not a kid," Damian and Ibn said at the same time.

Carrie cackled, finding their deadpan unison hilarious for some reason.

The older Jason just shrugged and pulled a present out of the bag, a little princess figurine and handed it to Tal'i.

"Aren't you supposed to be training?" Ibn asked Carrie.

"You'd be surprised how quickly you can travel the world with Daddy Warbucks funding the trip."

"You really need to stop calling my dad that."

"Uh-huh." Carrie didn't even consider Ibn's suggestion for even a moment before dismissing it.

Ibn decided to let it go. He had more pressing questions like;

"What are you doing here on a Tuesday?"

"Damian, it's totally worth coming here to see your younger selves." Carrie winked at the time travellers.

Tim ducked away nervously while Jason waved back. Bruce scowled and Damian frowned.

"Harlot," Damian muttered.

"Good guess! But, nope!" Carrie responded. "I'm a director. I run my own channel."

"Online," Ibn added.

"Still pays the bills, barely, gets me experience and I can do what I want. Mostly."

"I can't believe you're following his rules," Jason spat at his nicely dressed future.

The man in the suit with his hair slicked back looked confused for a moment but realisation quickly dawned.

"You mean Bruce? Aw, heck no." He ducked the batarang which was tossed in his direction for swearing around the children. "I still have my gun." He even pulled it out of his shoulder holster.

"Yeah. When was the last time you killed the scum of Gotham?"

The future Jason gave a thoughtful look, almost posing with his gun as he brought his hand up to rest his chin on. He could see why Bruce gave him so many lectures about killing. It seemed to be everything his past self focused on when the topic of their night work came up. Jason knew he had been looking to do some good in the world and he did, just the Bat Clan brought out some of the worse in him.

The past Jason smiled in triumph, thinking he had his future self.

"Someone might have died in that blast last week, although that wasn't my fault," future Jason mused.

"No one died in the blast. Some of the henchmen ended up in prison hospital though," Ibn said.

"Well, it's not like killing them always works," future Jason muttered. It didn't really work on the big ones, like a certain killer clown. If you tried, they always seemed to come back in some shape or form.

Or copy-cats rose up. Killing copy-cats just wasn't as satisfying.

Jason's past self was giving him a calculating and cold look. He decided to shrug it off.

"You'll get there," he said to his younger self. Now that he thought about it, he wondered how the Bruce of the past would take to today's Dick. Dick still had a few guns squirrelled away somewhere.

"Uncle Jay, train with me!" Tal'i said, tugging on future Jason's pants.

"Okay, Princess." Future Jason moved over to the equipment and pulled on some punch pads.

"It's Tuesday," Ibn sighed as Jason sat down and held out the punch pads for Tal'i.

"I know. I don't care. Actually, what surprises me is that we got here first."

"What?"

"Here," Carrie said, passing Ibn her phone so he could see the picture and message his father had sent out. He had Ry'an on his lap and behind him were the people from the past.

Ibn looked at the recipient list and cursed. Tal'i gasped.

"Daddy said a bad word!"

"Yes, Daddy said a bad word," Ibn sighed. He crossed his arms and tried to think about how to salvage the situation. Although, he was hoping that everyone was too busy and Jason was the only one with the time to visit.

At least his father hadn't sent the photo to Mar'i, although she would probably see it eventually.

The people from the past gathered over in the corner. Even Jason had followed them, his eyes on his future self smiling at and encouraging Damian's daughter as she threw punches and kicks at the punch pads on his hands.

"Todd, next time strange kids from the future bother you, don't bring it to us," Damian growled. Ibn was picking Ry'an up and moving him over to a table which didn't exist in their time. The strange woman fluttered around him, seeing if he needed help.

"Agreed," Dick said. While he liked Tal'i and Ry'an, the idea of grandkids was freaking him out a little. He wasn't old enough to be a grandpa! Plus, these kids knew future him and not him. It placed a lot of expectation on his shoulders which he couldn't live up to.

"This is interesting though," Tim said. "I mean, Jason comes back to the family-"

"We're not a family," Jason interrupted.

"Fine," Tim hissed back. "Jason comes back to the manor, then. Bruce loosens up; and now that I think about it, the two may be connected."

"Probably," Dick muttered.

"'Loosens up'?" Bruce questioned in a low tone.

"Come on, B. You have to admit, your future self didn't demand answers the way you do. He coaxed them out of you."

"It might be hard to believe, Dick, but I can be subtle."

"But you often don't bother. Plus, future you let future Damian scold you. Plus, plus, future you apparently allows future Jay to carry around guns inside the manor and train with his grandkids."

Bruce fell silent. Dick had a point.

"Damian's also taller than you," Jason pointed out in the silence.

"What?" Bruce and Damian said in unison. Bruce's voice was flat while Damian's held a bit of awe and excitement.

"Ibn or whatever. He's taller than Bruce. I noticed it when 'grandpapa' Bats was making his exit."

"You know Mar'i used to call B, 'Grandpa Bruce'. Still does," future Jason pointed out. "Thought you might like to know, he's already a 'Grandpapa Bats'."

"Grandpa Bats!" Tal'i echoed before executing two punches and a flying kick in sequence on the punch pads.

Past Jason twitched. He hated seeing this little girl training away. He wondered if Ibn was willing to throw his kids to the wolves of Gotham.

Future Jason chuckled.

"Good job, Princess," future Jason praised. "So, I hear you tried to hand your little brother over to those guys." He jabbed a thumb at the time travellers.

Tal'i frowned and crossed her arms, mimicking her dad when he was annoyed.

"Daddy didn't want to play with me last night. He stayed with Ry'an and mummy. I decided to get Ry'an a new family so he'd leave mine alone."

"And did daddy tell you that Ry'an's your family?"

"Family is mummy and daddy and me!" Tal'i puffed up her cheeks and tried to glare at her uncle.

"Come on, kiddo. You know your awesome kick? You can teach Ry'an that one day."

"But it's my awesome kick!" Tal'i whined.

"So? Ry'an's your brother. And what's his is also yours."

"Is that your logic for stealing Timothy's waffles, Jason?" Ibn asked.

"Well, duh!"

Tal'i dropped her arms and then put a finger in her mouth.

"Does that mean I get Ry'an's dessert?" she asked.

Ibn shared a look with his brother. Jason silently pleaded for him to agree. Even though Ry'an didn't usually get a dessert, Ibn was willing to give his daughter extra desserts if it eased the sibling rivalry. Besides, he would ask Alfred to half Tal'i's first dessert so she was still eating the same amount, just in two servings.

"Fine," he sighed.

"By the way, I don't steal Timmy's waffles, he makes them for me," future Jason said.